Elevated levels don't necessarily mean permanent damage and there are many different reasons why you may have raised levels in your system at the moment.

The levels alone don't tell the whole story - especially on the 'why' your levels are raised.

As such, it's difficult to assume what you can do in order to fix the problem. Has your doctor come to any conclusion on why your levels are raised? Apart from the bloodwork, are they noticing anything abnormal physically? Do you have liver inflamation? Is there any fatty infiltration showing on an ultrasound or CT? Are their any lesions?

Your levels can be raised for any number of reasons, from drugs in your system, to high iron levels in the liver, fat infiltration or other diseases. It's difficult to offer a suggestion on anything until an underlying reason can be pinpointed.

I assume your doctor has recommended further testing? Usually when bloodwork reveals elevated levels, the next course of action is to take a look at what's going on in there through either an ultrasound/sonogram or a CT/MRI. They can also look at more bloodwork to rule out other common reasons for liver function abnormality, like hepatitus.

The best thing you can do at the moment is not fret too much and be open to further testing with your doctor. Be sure to tell him if you've got any symptoms out of the ordinary and let them run further tests to get to the bottom of the problem. Often these sorts of issues can be tied directly to something fairly mundane and because it's your liver in question, you stand a good chance of getting better once the underlying cause is treated.

But as with all things, it's always best to seek professional medical advice and stick with it. I'm only relaying my opinion based on personal experience and I'm in no way a professional medical practitioner. I'm happy to give you a little more background on the possibilities (I know doctors can be less than forthcoming about those kinds of things and putting our fears to rest), but the doc will be able to give you a difinitive diagnosis and a plan of action more educated than what I can give.

Just stay positive and be sure to do what the doctor tells you. Best wishes!

Have the doctors suggested a liver biopsy? My son (10yrs old) has a positive ANA ,smooth muscle and did have elevated alt and ast.He was diagosed with autoimmune hepatitis.I just woder since they have done the autoimune panels if it or something else may have been mentioned. Alot of things can raise alt and ast but I dont believe the ana and smooth muscle. My advice is to see what direction the doctors are thinking and really begin to look things up as you go.I knwo with me its all I do.You are your own best advocate and its always good to know as much as you can about whats going on.Best of luck!!!!!! Mfife31

Are you on anything for high cholesterol, any of the Statins like Lipitor,
Zocor etc? These are known to elevate liver function tests and eventually
damage the liver in some people. Once the drug is stopped the levels go
down and the liver damage heals. My brother had this problem.
Jodianne

I just received paperwork in the mail with my lab results that the doctor thinks I may have received a false-positive for the ANA and for the smooth muscle. I don't know what that means. I do have an ultrasound on friday to look at my liver. I don't take any medications for cholesterol. Thank you for your replies.

false positive sounds like the test might have been botched with a positive result reported in error. Happens from time to time and I wouldn't be surprised if your doctor will ask for another test to be sure.

The ultrasound should reveal a little more, that's what I had after they did my first round of blood work.

Just stick with it and take the tests step by step until they get to the root of the problem.

Hi from Canada, yep, I know its scary to get these results. Anyone who drinks I would really urge you to take Milk Thistle, not the tablets but its a liquid, and I'm sorry can't remember the name right now, its about $25 Canadian, and also to buy some dandelion tree. Mind you, we all know we should just stop drinking Its also very important to take a B-complex and alcohol acts like a sponge on all those B vits that we need.
Its funny that in Europe where I am from, Wine is an accepted part of life, wine with lunch,weekends,at night. The thing is europeans use their legs more and walk, and walk and eat better than North America.

Fatty liver not the result of acholol is called Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis or NASH. (This will help you do a better search.) It's the result of accumulation of triglycerides and other fats in the liver cells. It can cause liver inflammation (hepatitis) or liver cell death (steatohepatitis). Hopefully your doctor will find the cause and remove it. Diet may help. Try to eliminate fats. My sister had this and found out it was because her body couldn't properly digest real butter. She was also over weight, which may have contributed to it. She eliminated certain fats and the problem resolved. The good news is that the mortality rate for NASH is fairly low.
Let us know what you find out.

* RBC indices
- MCV 103 (range 80-97). I had this one since last year which was 107 and the doctro wanted to wait another year ti find out if it will be the same.
- MCH 35 (27-32)

* Cholesterol 6.10 (should be <5.19). Last year was in 2 range and this is the first time I have high cholesterol

* Blood in urine

High level of ALT/AST are due to:
1- Alcohol, drugs, medication, hepatitis...None of these apply to me
2- Fatty liver...Fatty liver apply to obese people. Is that still a possibility? I am not thin, not fat, just an average person with tendency to gain weight pretty easily.
3- Cancer. Is that a strong possibility since it seems the last resort?

High level of ALT/AST are due to:
1- Alcohol, drugs, medication, hepatitis...None of these apply to me
2- Fatty liver...Fatty liver apply to obese people. Is that still a possibility? I am not thin, not fat, just an average person with tendency to gain weight pretty easily.
3- Cancer. Is that a strong possibility since it seems the last resort?

1 - I didn't have any of those causes either

2 - Not specifically obese people. You can be overweight by as little as 10% and still get it. People with a fast metabolism can also get it too. It's a very common cause of liver disease (approx 20% of the population get it this way) and many don't even know it.

3 - Cancer is actually a remote possibility. Naturally I'd be assuming too much to say that it's not even a consideration, but the facts are that liver cancer is actually extremely rare (accounting for about 3% of all cancers) and I would likely consider this as a slim chance rather than likely. I know I had a scare when I had my ultrasound first up because they noticed a mass on my liver, a follow up CT scan confirmed it was merely a fatty deposit.

You can have elevated levels from your liver for a number of reasons other than what you've mentioned including iron in the liver or auto immune issues. The best thing you can do is try and relax and let the doctors run through their testing. Liver conditions can definitely make you really sick and you will definitely run the gambit of questions over and over in your mind as you go through the process, but at the end of the day all you can do is leave it up to your doctors and take things as they come.

Best wishes and god bless mate, you're not in this alone and there's other people here who've been through it willing to chat with you about it.

Thanks danielm for the words.
I had the ultrasound today and it lasted for almost 5-7 minutes. I am not sure if a fast ultrasound means good or bad.

One more question. Beside liver shape and size, what does the ultrasound exactly reveal?

And I found out not only obese people have fatty liver in canada (and possibly in the US) because of our diet. Again, I tend to gain weight easily but I am always cautious with my food. It is just in the last 12 months, I sort of removed that caution and started eating sweets and fat food (I hope this is the reason).